Who will lose first the Avalanche or the Broncos? Hey Peyton Manning move it on over. You don't play for the only 5-0 team in town you know.

The former lottery team known as the Avalanche marched into Washington on Saturday night and shut down the Capitals 5-1 at the Verizon Center. The victory sent another loud message to the rest of the NHL: Can you hear us now?

"Right now we're just saying 'Why not? Why not us?' " said Avalanche coach Patrick Roy. "We've been working hard every day we've been remaining humble and know that we're playing against very good teams. It was a tough trip ... but we're very happy with how it went."

Alex Tanguay scored two goals and rookie Nathan MacKinnon got the first of his career to help make Semyon Varlamov's return to Washington a triumph. While the game's final score may have suggested a leisurely night for the Avs it wasn't.Varlamov was called upon to bail his team out numerous times and aside from a third-period goal he responded. The Avs tied the 1994-95 Quebec Nordiques for the second-best start in franchise history. The record 7-0 was set by the 1985-86 Nordiques. Varlamov is 4-0 having allowed only one goal in each victory.

During the pregame warm-ups Varlamov said he was gripped by a sudden severe case of nerves.

"So nervous" he said. "My pads were shaking a little. But after the first period I felt pretty good."

The Avs received first-period goals from Tanguay and Matt Duchene against Caps goalie Michal Neuvirth. Duchene's goal was a beauty. He beat Caps D-man Karl Alzner off the rush and roofed a shot past Neuvirth to make it 2-0 at 14:22. Previously Tanguay scored his first of the season at 6:42.